Disney has come up with a way to expand the humorous possibilities in typical sitcoms, and it looks promising: They’re taking a fairly typical Disney sitcom family and adding a very Muppet-like puppet character.

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Now, if you’re like me and grew up in the ’80s, your mind probably just went right to ALF and cringed a bit. Let me ease your mind: Crash, the puppet character, is not an alien and I’m guessing will probably not be interested in eating cats.

The premise is that 12-year-old Wyatt Bernstein is the only boy of the four kids in his family, and feels overwhelmed by his sisters at home because they have each other to share “girl” things with but he has no brother to share “boy” things with. When he’s taken to a “Build-A-Bestie” store for his birthday, he creates Crash, who magically comes to life. You know, as such things often do.

Crash becomes the brother Wyatt wanted, of course, but he doesn’t know anything about being a part of a human family. So Wyatt helps Crash with that, while the loud-mouthed Crash helps pull Wyatt out of his shell.

I haven’t seen a full episode of the show, so I can’t tell you if it works or not, but this promo video for the show is pretty funny. The Bernstein family is played by a mix of veteran actors and newcomers (including Cole Jensen, who plays Wyatt). The man behind Crash is Tim Lagasse, a veteran puppeteer, puppet builder, and filmmaker, who has worked on shows such as Sesame Street, Between the Lions, and Johnny and the Sprites, among many others.

Crash & Bernstein will premiere in October 2012 (the specific date has yet to be announced). This promo video will air on Disney XD starting tomorrow at 6:23pm ET/PT — this is the ONLY place you can see it before then. Enjoy!

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